The focus of the unit is the fact that the Shang dynasty made astonishing advances in writing, bronze technology, art and warfare. Some bronze work was the best in the world at that time. Our study starts with pupils interpreting clues to form some early ideas about this little-known society.
This is a deliberate attempt to replicate what historians were faced with. Only in the last 100 years have they been able to find sufficient evidence to build a picture of a society many felt might not have existed. Time is given over to the material culture as well as spiritual beliefs that underpinned society.
Throughout comparisons are made with other contemporary societies so that pupils can place the Shang dynasty in relation to say Stonehenge or the pyramids and can see the similarities differences and the way society operated and the Shang’s belief systems.
